[ComradeDylie]

Ok so I thought it would work with the Xonar DG (outputting Virtual Surround, in this case Dolby Headphone, over optical or coax) and I have seen others recommend this card as one that is a good bet to do this.  Well after trying and trying, Ive decided that it is not possible, at least with this card.  
 
Does anyone know if the Xonar STX will output DH over coax/optical?
 
What about the creative cards?  Ive been hearing they are better for gaming virtual surround anyway, do any of the Core3D cards output the virtual surround over optical or coax?
 
I have a USB DAC that is the default in foobar and I would like to find a sound card that I can leave in surround mode as the default device in Windows so that I can just change the input on my DAC when needed.

 

[DaemonSire]

  Ok so I thought it would work with the Xonar DG (outputting Virtual Surround, in this case Dolby Headphone, over optical or coax) and I have seen others recommend this card as one that is a good bet to do this.  Well after trying and trying, Ive decided that it is not possible, at least with this card.  
 
Does anyone know if the Xonar STX will output DH over coax/optical?
 
What about the creative cards?  Ive been hearing they are better for gaming virtual surround anyway, do any of the Core3D cards output the virtual surround over optical or coax?
 
I have a USB DAC that is the default in foobar and I would like to find a sound card that I can leave in surround mode as the default device in Windows so that I can just change the input on my DAC when needed.

 
I have the Xonar DG and it 100% does do Dolby Headphone over optical.  I use it all the time.
 
In the Xonar software:
- configure the sample rate to 44.1 KHz (you can do 96KHz if you want but you don't really get any benefit).
- Set analog out to "Headphone"
- Check off SPDIF Out and set it to PCM
   - Check off 7.1 Virtual
   - Check off Dolby Headphone
 
In Windows, go to playback devices
- set the "ASUS Xonar DG Audio Device" as your default device
   - You can even disable the rest if you want to (I have the rest disabled).
   - **The SPDIF Pass-through is NOT what you want***
- Click on the ASUS Xonar DG and go to Configure
  - 7.1 Audio Channels should be available and selected by default.  Feel free to hit TEST and you will hear the sound from all 7
  - Click Next.  Check all the Optional Speakers (Center, Subwoofer, Side Pair, Rear Pair).  Again they are all checked off by default
  - Click Next.  Check "Front left and right" and "Surround speakers" for Full-range speakers.
  - Click Finish.
 
- Still in Windows playback devices, select the ASUS Xonar DG again and go to Properties this time.
  - Go to Levels and set it to 100
  - Go to Advanced and set "24bit, 44100 Studio Quality"
  - Check both options in Exclusive mode
 
 
That should be it.  Then in any game/software, set the number of speakers to be 7.1 and you will have surround.

 

[DaemonSire]

  Ok so I thought it would work with the Xonar DG (outputting Virtual Surround, in this case Dolby Headphone, over optical or coax) and I have seen others recommend this card as one that is a good bet to do this.  Well after trying and trying, Ive decided that it is not possible, at least with this card.  
 
Does anyone know if the Xonar STX will output DH over coax/optical?
 
What about the creative cards?  Ive been hearing they are better for gaming virtual surround anyway, do any of the Core3D cards output the virtual surround over optical or coax?
 
I have a USB DAC that is the default in foobar and I would like to find a sound card that I can leave in surround mode as the default device in Windows so that I can just change the input on my DAC when needed.

 
Also, to add to the bolded statement above:  This is exactly what I'm doing.  The Xonar DG is my default surround windows device and I have foobar set up for my USB DAC over ASIO.  Then I just swap between the two on my DAC itself.

 

[ComradeDylie]

Thanks I just logged in and changed my settings, hopefully when I get back home it works!  
 
I had been setting the default device to SPDIF pass-through, I have now set it to speakers.
 
What does the 7.1 speaker shifter do?  Would it work if that wasnt selected?  
 
If i had to guess this feature is why I want to select 7.1 in games?  
 
When I was using the DH out of the card itself, the headphone setting definitely worked much better...
 
Should I set default communication device to SPDIF pass-through so that skype etc, doesnt get a bunch of surround dsp applied to it?

 

[DaemonSire]

  Thanks I just logged in and changed my settings, hopefully when I get back home it works!  
 
I had been setting the default device to SPDIF pass-through, I have now set it to speakers.
 
What does the 7.1 speaker shifter do?  Would it work if that wasnt selected?  
 
If i had to guess this feature is why I want to select 7.1 in games?  
 
When I was using the DH out of the card itself, the headphone setting definitely worked much better...
 
Should I set default communication device to SPDIF pass-through so that skype etc, doesnt get a bunch of surround dsp applied to it?

If i remember correctly, you cannot check off Dolby Headphone until the 7.1 Virtual Speaker shifter is selected.  So you need to check that and then check Dolby Headphone.  The speaker shifter allows you to move the virtual speakers around if you wish - i.e. make the rear left more around the back, or change the distance that you hear each of the virtual speakers from.  I left it alone personally.
 
Ya if you set the SPDIF pass-through, it will ignore all the DSP's that Dolby Headphone is applying.  This is why you aren't getting any of the dolby headphone affects.
 
By setting Windows and the Xonar config to 7.1, and then selecting Dolby Headphone, the Dolby Headphone DSP processing will virtualize all those 7.1 channels into the 2 channel headphone output that you need.  So you need to configure your games and everything else to use 7.1 so they know that you have that may 'speakers'.  Dolby Headphone will do the work to convert it to 2 channel for your headphones.
 
And just leave the default device alone for Skype, etc.  But open up the Xonar software and hit the "HiFi" button.  This automatically disables all the DSP's but doesn't change any settings.  Then when you are done and want it back, just hit the HiFi button again.  You'll see that in the DSP Mode area, the "Dolby Headphone" and "Virtual Speaker Shifter" disappear when HiFi is selected and come back when you HiFi is deselected.

 

[mindbomb]

usually you can just set the playback device in the application itself. Also, I'm not sure exactly what the full range setting does in windows, I imagine it would mix in LFE into those channels, so I wouldn't suggest having that on since it would be improper for headphones, but I agree with the other suggestions.

 

[ComradeDylie]

In an effort to get this working I switched over to the UNi drivers so i am actually using the C-Media Panel.  But in both of them I was able to select Dolby Headphone without ticking the 7.1 box, so long as headphone output was selected on the analog side. 

 

[DreamKing]

  If i remember correctly, you cannot check off Dolby Headphone until the 7.1 Virtual Speaker shifter is selected.  So you need to check that and then check Dolby Headphone.  The speaker shifter allows you to move the virtual speakers around if you wish - i.e. make the rear left more around the back, or change the distance that you hear each of the virtual speakers from.  I left it alone personally.
 

Don't you mean you need to check Dolby headphone THEN the shifter? It's the opposite, you can't check the virtual speaker shifter without Dolby Headphone being on.

 

[DaemonSire]

  Don't you mean you need to check Dolby headphone THEN the shifter? It's the opposite, you can't check the virtual speaker shifter without Dolby Headphone being on.

Could be...I've been using the UNi drivers myself for quite a while and was going by memory.  Bottom-line, you need Dolby Headphone checked off, however you get it checked 

 

[DreamKing]

Well this thread is interesting to me because it fixed an issue I had today. I finally figured out that my Xonar optical line to my dac was set to 66% volume somehow (no idea how) in the properties thanks to you DaemonSire...One question I have is why are you guys switching from the dac and not from windows? don't they do the same thing? Or is it because I use the coaxial input from my dac and you use USB dac. Like, all I have to do is enable dolby headphone when I need surround. I don't understand how I could not be listening to the dac and instead listening to the soundcard when they're part of one chain. Or maybe I've been doing it wrong. 

 

[ComradeDylie]

  Well this thread is interesting to me because it fixed an issue I had today. I finally figured out that my Xonar optical line to my dac was set to 66% volume somehow (no idea how) in the properties thanks to you DaemonSire...One question I have is why are you guys switching from the dac and not from windows? don't they do the same thing? Or is it because I use the coaxial input from my dac and you use USB dac. Like, all I have to do is enable dolby headphone when I need surround. I don't understand how I could not be listening to the dac and instead listening to the soundcard when they're part of one chain. Or maybe I've been doing it wrong. 

My main reason for switching inputs on the DAC instead of Windows is to prevent any issues from 2 applications trying to use the same sound device.  I set my output in foobar to KS, if another application tries to use the same audio device it doesnt work.  This way I have foobar doing KS only through the USB DAC, if another application tries to use sound it goes to the Default Direct Sound Device which is the Xonar.  Obviously I can only listen to one at a time but this way I can leave my Dolby settings on at all times since I never use it for Music but want it for games and avoid having to use the panel all the time as well as avoiding any weird issues with applications using exclusive mode.